The Rancher's Answered Prayer. Arlene James

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СКАЧАТЬ other. Callie, as she’d insisted they call her, was a pretty little blonde with a baby boy and a daughter about Frankie’s age playing quietly on the floor. Callie moved about the kitchen with her son perched on her hip, pouring coffee and removing cookies from the oven with one hand.

      “Rex should be here any minute,” she said, shifting the baby to the other hip. The front door opened, and Callie smiled brightly.

      They heard two thumps, followed by silence. A few seconds later, the swinging door between the dining room and kitchen opened, and a tall, dusty cowboy padded into the space on his stocking feet. The little girl on the floor jumped up and ran to greet him, throwing her arms around his thighs.

      “Hello, darlin’.” While Callie went to him, baby and all, he explained the situation. “My boots were filthy so I yanked them off. Now I need to wash my hands.” Holding his hands away from them, he kissed the baby, then his wife.

      Wyatt couldn’t help but feel envious. He’d expected to be married and settled into family life by now himself, but somehow it just hadn’t happened. Billings hurried to the sink to wash his hands. Finally, he turned back to the table.

      “You must be Wyatt Smith.”

      Wyatt stood and put out his hand. “That’s right. Thank you for seeing us on such short notice.”

      Shaking hands with Wyatt, Billings glanced at Tina and nodded. He looked to his wife then. “Honey, I’ve been dreaming about your coffee and cookies. Set me up.” He sat down at the table. His daughter crawled up into his lap.

      “Daddy, can I hab cookies?”

      “Have cookies. What does Mama say?”

      “Ask you.”

      “Then you can have one cookie.”

      “Yay!”

      Callie had the cookie wrapped in a napkin by the time Billings set the girl on her feet.

      “Sit on your blanket and eat,” Callie instructed gently, as she poured another cup of coffee.

      “We were sure sorry to hear about Dodd’s passing,” Billings began as Callie set the coffee in front of him.

      “Thank you,” Wyatt and Tina said at the same time.

      Wyatt frowned at her. She spoke as if she were Dodd’s next of kin. Then again, Dodd had spoken fondly of her over the years, though if he’d told his nephews nearly as much about her as he had apparently told her about them, they hadn’t been paying attention.

      “I was sorry that Dodd left instructions not to have a service,” Billings went on, lifting his coffee cup. “It would have been well attended. He was much liked around War Bonnet.”

      “I appreciate you saying so,” Wyatt told the other man, cutting a glance at Tina, who nodded and pressed her lips together as Callie placed a platter of cookies and three small plates in front of them.

      “Now,” Billings said, “how can I help you?”

      “There seems to be some confusion about my uncle’s will,” Wyatt explained, passing the papers to Billings.

      Rex swallowed some coffee and glanced over the papers across the rim of his cup before stacking them on the table at his elbow. “No confusion. Dodd was very certain about what he wanted and how he wanted to do it.”

      “I don’t understand.”

      Rex shrugged and reached for a cookie. “Your uncle wanted Ms. Kemp to have the house and the mineral rights. You and your brothers get everything else.”

      “I told you,” Tina crowed triumphantly. She reached a hand across the table toward Rex. “I’m Tina Walker Kemp, by the way.”

      “Not Mrs. Smith, then.”

      Both Wyatt and Tina reacted at the same time. “No!”

      Billings shot a glance at Wyatt before shaking Tina’s hand. Then he released her and placed some cookies onto plates for her and Wyatt. “Eat up.”

      Tina nibbled, but after one bite of cookie, the world as a whole seemed a lot more palatable to Wyatt.

      “Mmm. You should market these,” Wyatt told Callie Billings, shaking a cookie at her.

      “Don’t even joke about it,” Rex protested. “She has enough to do with me, these kids, my dad and helping her own father run his businesses.”

      “If you’re looking to sell Loco Man,” Callie said to Wyatt, “Rex and my dad might be interested in buying. You may know my father. Stuart Westhaven.”

      “The banker?”

      “Among other things.”

      “Beware an ambitious businesswoman,” Rex put in, shaking his head. “Always looking to expand.” He reached out and pulled Callie close to him, kissing her soundly.

      Envy knocked around inside Wyatt’s chest again. Unbidden, his gaze stole to Tina Walker Kemp, who stared morosely at her empty plate as if wishing for the return of her cookie or perhaps another. Frowning at himself, Wyatt focused his mind on the subject at hand.

      “We’re not interested in selling,” he stated firmly, though once his brothers heard that Tina’s claim was real, they might have other ideas. Blanking his face, he asked, “You wouldn’t know where we might rent a place to stay, would you? There’s four of us, including my nephew, Frankie.”

      Rex shook his head. “Not offhand.”

      Wyatt grimaced before he could stop himself. “Something affordable to buy, then. Preferably on the east side of town.”

      “Lyons might have something for sale.”

      “Dix told me they sold that house they remodeled,” Callie put in. “Saw him and Fawn at the grocery store.”

      “Well, there’s a realtor in town. He’ll know,” Rex said casually. “I think your uncle was expecting y’all to share, though.”

      “Share!” Tina yelped, glaring at Wyatt as if he’d suggested the idea.

      “Everyone knows the old house needs some work,” Callie pointed out. She looked to Wyatt then, adding, “Even if you and your brothers aren’t up to that, you could pay rent so Ms. Kemp could afford to hire Lyons and Son.” She smiled at Tina. “They do excellent work, by the way.”

      Rent. Wyatt ground his teeth. His business plan didn’t allow for rent, let alone buying a house for himself and his family. He especially did not like the idea of paying rent to live in what was rightly Smith property, but what was the option? Staying in the bunkhouse?

      “What about the outbuildings?”

      “They’re yours,” Rex told him. “Dodd was very intentional about it. The house and the mineral rights go to Ms. Kemp. Everything else goes to you and your brothers. Technically, you own the ground that the house sits on.”

      Well, СКАЧАТЬ